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Jupiter Rising -- October 1st, 1998
A free bi-monthly email newsletter for new and aspiring vegetarians
Jupiter Rising is a free newsletter. I hope you enjoy the information provided and find it
useful. Please forward this copy of Jupiter Rising intact, to at least 2 of your friends
that are either vegetarians, health-conscious or animal lovers. Thank You!
Was this forwarded to you? Like what you see? Then subscribe!
Email vegnewsltr@aol.com with your
name and email address
Table of Contents
- Vegetarian News SOY PROTEIN CAN HELP MODIFY RISK OF HEART DISEASE
- New Vegetarian Corner Severe Weather and the Vegetarian Lifestyle
- Websites and Freebies
- Find Out About Calcium Rich Foods
- Slaughterhaus Factory Farming:Mechanized Madness
- Recipes from Subscribers / Activist's Corner
- Back to the Jupiter Rising Home Page
Vegetarian News SOY PROTEIN CAN HELP MODIFY RISK OF HEART DISEASE
Indiana Soybean Board http://stratsoy.ag.uiuc.edu/~in-qssb/welcome.html
Soy protein, when substituted for animal protein in the diet, lowers blood cholesterol,
and can be a "viable alternative" for persons who want to modify their risk of
coronary heart disease without taking medication, a new review of soy's effects on heart
disease indicates. Dr. Susan M. Potter, of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at
Protein Technologies International in St. Louis
http://www.ralston.com/ptihome.html conducted the review and published a special article
on her findings in the August issue of the publication Nutrition Reviews http://www.ilsi.org/reviews.html. She found
that recent research also provides evidence that soy protein and isoflavones, the
naturally-occurring nutrients in soybeans, can improve functioning of blood vessels and
help prevent formation of blood clots.
Dr. Potter, formerly an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois
where she conducted research on soy and heart disease, reported on the "potential
mechanisms by which soy protein lowers cholesterol concentration."
Her review focused on the effects of soy protein research which, among other findings, has
demonstrated that soy can reduce low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol, while
high-density lipo protein or HDL cholesterol either remains unchanged or is increased. LDL
is so-called "bad cholesterol," and HDL is known as "good
cholesterol."
Studying what component of soy protein is responsible for fighting fat in blood, she wrote
that one isoflavone, genistein, can enhance vascular activity and also can inhibit blood
vessel damage as well as formation of blood clots, or thrombus.
"These inhibitory effects may be either independent effects of genistein, perhaps
acting as an estrogen, or responses related to suppression or inflammation," Dr.
Potter wrote.
Vegetarian Resource Group JOB OPENINGS
1) Registered Dietitian
The Vegetarian Resource Group is currently searching for an R.D. who is very knowledgeable
about vegetarian diets with a strong science background to research, who can write
articles/books; answer media, consumer, and
professional questions; and serve as a liaison with other groups. The job is in Baltimore,
MD. USA
Please send your resume, with a cover letter and your writing samples to
The Vegetarian Resource Group P.O. Box 1463 Baltimore, MD 21203.
Or email resume and writing samples to VRG@VRG.org .
2) INTERN OPENINGS
The Vegetarian Resource Group has openings for interns. These job depend on your
background, major, and interests. Tasks may include research, writing, and/or community
outreach. Journalism, English, Nutrition, and Business majors can gain valuable
experience. Activists can learn new skills and knowledge, and share your expertise.
Positions are open throughout the year for all ages. Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG)
internships are unpaid. If interested, please send your current resume, your writing
samples, and a letter including the following information:
a) why you want to intern for The Vegetarian Resource Group
b) the type of experience that would interest you
c) your qualifications
to: Intern Position The Vegetarian Resource Group PO Box 1463 Baltimore, MD 21203 or email
the above to vrg@vrg.org.
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New Vegetarian Corner Severe Weather and the Vegetarian Lifestyle
The weather reports are coming in every hour, on the hour. The television has a little
blue scrolling band on the bottom of your favorite program, warning you of the watches and
warnings in effect. Everyone around you is preparing, running to the ATM, the gas pump,
and the supermarket.
Whether you are facing a hurricane, tropical storm, tornado, flood, or snow warning, the
problems are the same. Your regular life is about to be interrupted by Mother Nature, and
you've got to cope. There will be a loss of mobility due to road closures; there may be a
loss of power, and even water. How do you, as a vegetarian, prepare for rough weather?
Just follow the checklist below:
1. Severe Weather Errands: Plan for several days without power. Go to the gas pump, ATM,
and hardware/home improvement store. Get a full tank of gas and all the money you'll need
for the next week. If you need secure your home, get plywood and masking tape. Decide who
will be your long distance relay. Pick someone out of state to call after the weather has
passed and they can call all your other relatives to tell them you're o.k.
2. Check your cupboards and medicine chest. Do you have enough vitamins, personal
products? Make a shopping list. Go to the largest supermarket in your area. They will be
most likely to have a variety of vegetarian foods. Luckily, vegetarians are at an
advantage. Most people still think you need to have meat, milk and eggs in their diet to
survive, so there may be a whole shelf full of vegetarian vegetable soup.
Buy canned vegetables and soups, enough for two meals per week. You need three servings of
vegetables per day. There are a lot of varieties on the market, buy to please your palate.
Don't forget beans! You'll need two servings of legumes per day, so choose baked beans or
any one of the many varieties of canned beans and peas. Peanut butter is a legume, and
makes a simple sandwich. Invest in powdered soymilk, it runs around $8 for a large
container, and can make several quarts. The biggest benefit is if you lose power, you can
mix 8 oz. at a time, just enough for your bowl of cereal, and it's also a serving of
legumes.
Buy and extra box of cereal, loaf of grain bread for sandwiches, whole-wheat pitas for a
change of pace, and several whole grain bagels. You'll need five servings of grains per
day, and a serving is one slice of bread.
In the produce section, buy your favorite fruits, three servings per day for a week.
Choose oranges, strawberries, or other citrus fruits for your vitamin c, and others such
as apples, bananas, and pears to round out the week. Remember fresh vegetables; choose
carrots and broccoli to snack on. Sandwich fillers for a change of pace from the peanut
butter can include peppers, onions, sprouts, mushrooms, and tomatoes.
Back to the shelves, pick out 100% fruit juice in boxed drinks for your breakfast juice.
That will count as one fruit serving.
Worried about nutrition, visit the Vegetarian Nutrition Page at http://members.aol.com/khlisson/vegetarian.html
for more serving information.
Gather up all your items in a safe place in your home, keep your can opener handy, and
bring out the good books and long life candles. Good Luck!
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Websites and Freebies
For information on how to get your product or website mentioned, see the Jupiter Rising
Webpage http://members.aol.com/khlisson/vegetarian.html
North American Vegetarian Society offers a free 16-page booklet with recipes,
"Vegetarianism: Answers to the Most Commonly Asked Questions."(here is its
cover), a booklet on vegetarian nutrition, "Good Nutrition: A Look at Vegetarian
Basics" and a booklet on the environment "Vegetarianism:Tipping the Scales for
the Enviroment". To receive paper copies, send a long (legal, #10) self-addressed
stamped envelope to: NAVS, Box 72Q, Dolgeville NY 13329.
For a Free Vegetarian Starter Kit, email PETA at peta@norfolk.infi.net
and include your street mailing address. Specify the Vegetarian Starter Kit.
Ever wondered whether those chemical sounding ingredients in your food were vegetarian or
not? Click on the Animal Derived ingredients list and find out http://arrs.envirolink.org/substances.html
Back to Top
Find Out About Calcium Rich Foods
The PCRM Vegetarian Starter Kit, which is available free of charge (see websites and
freebies), lists several different plants as being rich in calcium, including:
Broccoli 1 cup boiled 178 mg
Collards 1 cup boiled 148 mg
Tofu raw firm 1/2 cup 258 mg if made with calcium (check pkg)
OJ calcium fortified 8 oz 300 mg
It's easy and tasty to get our calcium from plant sources. Use the following recipes to
add calcium to your diet without adding all the potential allergens, contamination, and
colic-producing proteins found in milk!
Braised Collard Greens From http://www.vegweb.com/
· 1 lb. collard greens, washed, torn, and w/ stems removed
· 1 medium yellow onion, diced
· 2 large cloves garlic, minced
· 1 T olive oil
· water
· balsamic vinegar
· pepper
Saute onion and garlic in oil over med-hi heat. When tender, add greens. Stir for 2-3
minutes, then add enough water to almost cover the greens. Stir occasionally. When greens
are tender and bright green, and some of the water has boiled off, add a spash of balsamic
vinegar and pepper to taste.
This is a very low-fat way to enjoy a really cheap food.
Serves: 2-3
Preparation time: 25-30 min
Tomato Broccoli from http://www.vegweb.com/
· 1 Bunch of Broccoli
· 1 dozen Cherry Tomatoes
· 3 T minced Parsley
· 2 T chopped Chives
· Salt
Into a lunch box put as follows: Clean and cut up the Broccoli until the box is almost
full. Quarter the Cherry Tomatoes and put on top. Add Parsley and Chives and Salt to
Taste. Do not mix!
At work, mix, then nuke (microwave) for 8 minutes for soft Broccoli, or 6 minutes for
crunchier Broccoli.
Back to Top
Slaughterhaus Factory Farming:Mechanized Madness
http://www.peta-online.org/facts/veg/fsveg03.htm
Deprivation and Disease
Simply put, the factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most
meat, milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible, and in the smallest amount of
space possible. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and other
animals are kept in small cages or stalls, often unable to turn around. They are deprived
of exercise so that all of their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk
for human consumption. They are fed growth hormones to fatten them faster and are
genetically altered to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than nature originally
intended.
Because crowding creates a prime atmosphere for disease, animals on factory farms are fed
and sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides and antibiotics, which remain in their bodies
and are passed on to the people who eat them, creating serious human health hazards.
Chickens are divided into two groups: layers and broilers. Five to six laying hens are
kept in a 14-inch-square mesh cage, and cages are often stacked in many tiers. Conveyor
belts bring in food and water and carry away eggs and excrement. Because the hens are
severely crowded, they are kept in semi-darkness and their beaks are cut off with hot
irons (without anesthetics) to keep them from pecking each other to death. The wire mesh
of the cages rubs their feathers off, chafes their skin, and cripples their feet.
Approximately 20 percent of the hens raised under these conditions die of stress or
disease.(1) At the age of one to two years, their overworked bodies decline in egg
production and they are slaughtered (chickens would normally live 15-20 years).(2) Ninety
percent of all commercially sold eggs come from chickens raised on factory farms.(3)
More than six billion "broiler" chickens are raised in sheds each year.(4)
Lighting is manipulated to keep the birds eating as often as possible, and they are killed
after only nine weeks. Despite the heavy use of pesticides and antibiotics, up to 60
percent of chickens sold at the supermarket are infected with live salmonella bacteria.(5)
Genetic selection to keep up with demand and also reduce production costs, causes
extremely painful joint and bone conditions, making any movement difficult. PETA's 1994
undercover investigation into the "broiler" chicken industry also revealed birds
suffering from dehydration, respiratory diseases, bacterial infections, heart attacks,
crippled legs, and other serious ailments.
Cattle raised for beef are usually born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered
in yet another. They are fed an unnatural diet of high-bulk grains and other
"fillers" (including sawdust) until they weigh 1,000 pounds. They are castrated,
de-horned, and branded without anesthetics. During transportation, cattle are crowded into
metal trucks where they suffer from fear, injury, temperature extremes, and lack of food,
water, and veterinary care.
Calves raised for veal--the male offspring of dairy cows--are the most cruelly confined
and deprived animals on factory farms. Taken from their mothers only a few days after
birth, they are chained in stalls only 22 inches wide with slatted floors that cause
severe leg and joint pain. Since their mothers' milk is usurped for human consumption,
they are fed a milk substitute laced with hormones but deprived of iron: anemia keeps
their flesh pale and tender but makes the calves very weak. When they are slaughtered at
the age of about 16 weeks, they are often too sick or crippled to walk. One out of every
10 calves dies in confinement.(6)
Ninety percent of all pigs are closely confined at some point in their lives, and 70
percent are kept constantly confined.(7) Sows are kept pregnant or nursing constantly and
are squeezed into narrow metal "iron maiden" stalls, unable to turn around.
Although pigs are naturally peaceful and social animals, they resort to cannibalism and
tailbiting when packed into crowded pens and develop neurotic behaviors when kept isolated
and confined. Pork producers lose $187 million a year due to dysentery, cholera,
trichinosis, and other diseases fostered by factory farming.(8) Approximately 30 percent
of all pork products are contaminated with toxoplasmosis.(9)
Laws and Lifestyles
Factory farming is an extremely cruel method of raising animals, but its profitability
makes it popular. One way to stop the abuses of factory farming is to support legislation
that abolishes battery cages, veal crates, and intensive-confinement systems. But the best
way to save animals from the misery of factory farming is to stop buying and eating meat,
milk, and eggs. Vegetarianism and veganism mean eating for life: yours and theirs.
References
1. "Factory Farming," United Animal Defenders, Inc., p. 3.
2. Mason, Jim and Peter Singer, Animal Factories, p. 5.
3. Poultry Digest, July 1978, p. 363.
4. Animal Factories, op.cit., pp. 6-8.
5. Burros, Marian, "Clinton Plan Would Move Meat and Poultry Inspections to
F.D.A.," The New York Times, Sept. 13, 1993.
6. "Factory Farming," p. 2.
7. Animal Factories, op.cit., p. 8.
8. Ibid, p. 76.
9. Dubey, J.P., "Toxoplasmosis," Journal of the American Veterinary Medical
Association, Vol. 189, No. 2, 1986, p. 168.
Back to Top
Recipes from Subscribers / Activist's Corner
A great use for the insides of your jack-o-lanterns!
Tofu Pumpkin Pie from http://www.vegweb.com/
· 1 can (16 ounces) pureed pumpkin
· 3/4 cup sugar
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
· 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
· 1 package (10-12 ounces) soft tofu, processed in blender until smooth
· 1 9-in unbaked pie shell
Preheat oven to 425 F. Cream the pumpkin and sugar. Add salt, spices, and tofu, mix
thoroughly. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake for 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350 F and
bake for another 40 minutes. Chill and serve. Don't use the low fat tofu, then the pie
tastes like it was made with tofu. Nutrition Information: calories-195; fat-6g; saturated
fat-2g
Serves: 8
Good News from the Activists Corner!
http://www.mcso.org/news.htm#abuse
details the Maricopa County, AZ, USA hotline program for animal abuse. Close to Law
Enforcement in your community? Ask them if they can model this innovative program.